So-so application performance. Integrated graphics mean 3D games are out. New touchpad with integrated mouse buttons will take some getting used to.

Bottom Line

The HP Pavilion dv6-3010us boasts an updated design that is sure to grab your attention, but other laptops offer better bang for the buck.

(Editor's Note: HP has issued a driver fix for the touchpad issues, though all the problems haven't been resolved)

The HP Pavilion dv6-3010us ($699.98 list), sold at Staples, boasts a couple of noteworthy new features. For starters, it's one of the first Pavilions we've reviewed to feature HP's new design. It's also one of the first laptops to pass through the Labs with AMD's latest Vision platform. Both the new design and the new AMD Vision platform are mixed bags. We applaud HP's move away from the high-gloss Pavilion chassis it has used for the past few years, but both the keyboard layout and touchpad design will take some getting used to. Also, AMD's new platform offers fair performance and battery life, but it still can't compete with similarly priced Intel Core i3- and Core i5-based systems. The HP Pavilion dv6-3010us is certainly an attractive-looking laptop, but you can find better value and performance elsewhere.

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Design
I haven't been a big fan of HP's Pavilion design in the past. To me, the high-gloss surfaces and chrome edging were designed more to attract attention from big box store shelves than actually enhancing the utility for the buyers of these machines. The glossy surfaces attracted fingerprints within the first few seconds out of the box, and the glossy touchpads, which didn't provide the best feel, creating drag against your mousing finger. The new Pavilion design found on the dv6-3010us features a finish that can best be described at a semi-gloss, and the touchpad thankfully has a matte finish. The laptop remains blissfully free of fingerprints while giving off a soft, satin-like sheen.

The color of the Pavilion dv6-3010us is a light gold hue that HP calls champagne. Like HP's long-running Imprint finish of past Pavilions, the dv6-3010us features a subtle geometric pattern. The laptop's lid and keyboard deck feature this semi-gloss champagne finish, and the glossy black screen bezel and matte black keyboard and touchpad offer a nice contrast.

The Pavilion dv6-3010us has a simple, understated look. You won't find any media shortcut keys above the keyboard, nor will you find a separate number pad to its right. Instead, you get a full-size keyboard centered below the display. It features isolated keys, which look nice and are comfortable to use. The keys feel sturdy and offer the right amount of travel, but I'm not thrilled with HP's decision to add a column of shortcut keys along the left side of the keyboard. The keys offer one-button access to Windows Live Mail, CyberLink PowerDVD 9, your default browser, a print window, and a calculator. It will take some getting used to before you're not hitting the print key instead of Shift, the calculator key instead of the Alt key, or caps lock instead of the "a" key.

The touchpad has been wholly redesigned and is very similar to that touchpad on the Apple MacBook Pro ($1,799 direct, ). The mouse buttons are not separate buttons but instead are a part of the touchpad; thin white lines are painted on the touchpad to demark the mouse button area. The entire touchpad depresses along its bottom edge. This unified design sounds good in theory but it's less useful in practice.

Its support of multitouch gestures such as two-finger scrolling, rotating, and zooming, are fine on their own but this functionality interferes with simple cursor movements and commands.

For example, my right thumb resting on the mouse left mouse button area often caused sudden, erratic cursor movements. Likewise, when attempting to click on a link or an icon, moving my thumb to the left mouse button area sometimes created a small swipe before I could actually press the button down, resulting in the cursor moving down a few pixels on the screen and off of the link or icon I wished to click. I was able to dial down touch the click sensitivity of touchpad, and I could also guard against accidental contact with feature called PalmCheck under the Mouse Properties window. Adjusting these two touchpad sensitivity sliders helped somewhat but throughout the course of this review, I felt like I was fighting against the touchpad.

I do like the unique method used to disable the touchpad, should you want to turn it off in favor of a mouse. A small LED resides in the upper-left corner of the touchpad. Double tap the corner, and the LED glows orange, alerting you that the touchpad is disabled. Double tap again, and the LED turns off and the touchpad is back in action. The laptop has two other LEDs that act as useful indicators, found on the F11 and F12 keys. The F11 is mapped as the mute key; when mute is enabled, the LED lights up orange. Similarly on the F12 key, when Wi-Fi is on, the LED glows white and when it's turned off, the LED glows orange.

The dv6-3010us weighs a trim 5.3 pounds, which places it slightly on the light side of the scale for a 15.6-inch laptop. It's the same weight as the Acer Aspire AS5741-6073 ($699.98 list, ) and a few ounces lighter than the 5.5-pound Toshiba Satellite L655D-S6051 ($599 list, ).

Features
The dv6-3010us features a 15.6-inch LED backlit display with a 1366 by 768 resolution, standard for the size and capable of displaying 720p HD video. Still images showed rich color, and video looked crisp and smooth. The screen's glossy coating helps colors pop and smooth edges, but it still manages to keep glare and reflections to a minimum. A low-grade 0.3-megapixel Webcam sits above the display.

The laptop features two front-facing Altec Lansing stereo speakers. They aren't going to rattle the walls, but they do offer full sound, relative to other integrated laptop speakers such as those on the Acer AS5741-6073 or Toshiba L655D-S6051.

With three USB 2.0 ports, a combo eSATA/USB 2.0 port, both VGA and HDMI video ports, a multiformat media card reader, and headphone and mic jacks, the dv6-3010us supplies useful expansion connections. The only item missing that some users may want is an ExpressCard slot. Likewise, wireless connectivity is superb, with 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on board. Wired connectivity is first-rate as well, with Gigabit Ethernet.

The laptop's hard drive is merely average. Some models at or near this price offer a 500GB drive, such as the Acer AS5741-6073, but most offer a 320GB hard drive, as is the case here. You'll have to spend a bit more to step up to a Blu-ray drive. The $830 Samsung R580 features such a drive, but a dual-layer DVD burner is the optical drive of choice on the Pavilion dv6-3010us.

Customers who buy this system from Staples can avail themselves of several services the retailer offers. This includes setting the new system up, data transfer from your old PC to your new one, software installation, and tech support and protection plans that range in price from $14.99 to $169.99.

Performance
The dv6-3010us features the dual-core 2.3GHz Turion II P520, 4GB of 1066GHz DDR3 memory, and integrated ATI Radeon HD 4250 graphics. As part of AMD's new Vision platform, the system supports faster DDR3 memory, HyperTransport 3, and Direct X 11.
Although Windows 7 feels responsive, even when multitasking, the Pavilion dv6-3010us can't keep up with similarly priced laptops that feature Intel Core i3 and Core i5 CPUs. Its PCMark Vantage score of 3,816 is 25 percent lower than the Core i5-430M-based Acer Aspire AS5741-6073's score of 5,094. We saw a similar result on Cinebench, where the dv6-3010us took 28 percent longer to render the Cinebench image. The differences grew larger between the two systems on our real-world tests; the Pavilion took 51 percent longer to complete our Window Media Encoder test and 63 percent longer to complete our Photoshop CS4 test.

The picture gets a little rosier when we look at battery life. The dv6-3010us uses a standard 6-cell (55WHr) battery and lasted 4 hours 34 minutes on the MobileMark 2007 test. Most laptops with 6-cell batteries fail to top the 4-hour mark in this test.

While we applaud HP's updated design, the HP Pavilion dv6-3010us fails to impress from a price vs. performance perspective. The Editors' Choice Samsung R580 ($830 list, ) offers Blu-ray drive, Core i5 CPU, and a spacious 500GB hard drive. The Acer Aspire AS5741-6073 can be had for the same price as the dv6-3010us and offers significantly better performance, while the Toshiba Satellite L655D-S6051 costs $100 less for basically the same configuration. Plus, the Pavilion dv6-3010us's touchpad takes some getting used to.

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About the Author

Matthew Elliott, a technology writer for more than a decade, is a PC tester, Mac user, and iPhone photographer. He was an editor for PC Magazine back when it was a print publication, and spent many years with CNET, where he led its coverage of laptop and desktop computers. Having escaped New York for scenic New Hampshire, Matthew freelances for a n... See Full Bio

HP Pavilion dv6-3010us

HP Pavilion dv6-3010us

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